Friends are friends forever..

And friends are friends forever
If the lord's the lord of them
And a friend will not say never - cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you gone the father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long to live as friends.
- Michael W. Smith

Yeah -- I' m not sure who is more surprised than me that I just quoted Christian Rock in my blog but there you have it.

Despite my own personal convictions, I have always loved the chorus of this song and the above quoted text. Ignoring the religious implications, the sentiment is just lovely.

This weekend I had the honour and privileged of spending time in Ottawa with 4 amazing women. Three of whom I had met in person before, 1 of whom I had not -- we all met on that there internet thing in the process of planning our weddings and in the aftermath. I knew when we were planning our weddings, that some of us wouldn't make it. Divorce is very real and in fact, one of the women with us this weekend has divorced and is now engaged to the love of her life -- everything for a reason. What I never in my wildest dreams imagined was that we would have to deal with the death of one of our spouses -- at least not 4 years after the fact but sadly, we did. On December 22, 2004, my dear, dear friend Laurie lost her husband Brian. When I tell you that I was mere moments from flying up to Ottawa on 12/22, I'm not kidding. When I tell you that before last Friday, I had never met Laurie in person -- you may think I am crazy. But the one thing I have learned in the last almost 11 years is that love isn't rational. Friendships are made because they need to be made and they are all important and all significant. The people who you are meant to have in your life find you -- or you find them but there is a reason for it all.

I have always believed that when you love someone, you should just tell them -- not telling them is a perfect moment lost and there are too few moments in our lives to risk losing any.

Hug the people in your life -- heaven knows I try to.